TRENDS
10
Facing
the
Skills
Gap
Today’s digital economy
supports hiring for 21st century
technological skills. But who
will keep the lights on?
BY KATHRYN NAVE
The future may be digital, but it will still need
the electricians and engineers to, quite literally, keep
the lights on. Amidst the drive to teach young people
to code, the need to train future generations for more
traditional skilled trades has gone neglected.
“[Skilled trade] employers don’t have great internal
training programs,” says Doug Donovan, CEO of training
software company Interplay Learning. “Most rely on
what we call the ‘Follow Bob’ method, where you follow
an older technician around for three-to-six months,
hoping you acquire enough skills to become competent
in your trade.”
A look at the numbers reveals the full extent of the
problem. With the average age for heating, ventilation,
and air conditioning (HVAC) technicians hovering
around 58 years of age, the problem is how to scale this
training once Bob retires—particularly when hands-on
training is so essential.
In fact, by 2020, baby boomers who fill skilled trade
positions will hit retirement age, leaving behind 31
million vacant positions, according to a study by Adecco
USA. With a dwindling number of experienced employees
available to train new generations, the question is
what can employers in the skilled trades do now?
VIRTUAL TRAINING, REAL-WORLD SKILLS
Interplay Learning is one of a number of new companies
who believe virtual or augmented reality simulations
can help bridge the skills gap. Such training simulations
have longstanding use in the military and aviation
training—two industries whereby dollars haven’t been a
prohibiting factor.
“The development costs for creating these simulations
always used to be far too high for something like
the HVAC or electrical industry,” explains Donovan.
“But now, the costs have come way down.” Thanks to
both increasingly affordable virtual reality (VR) modeling
software, and the growing availability of commercial
VR headsets, it’s now possible to extend the benefit
of virtual reality training to a wide range of industries,
without military-sized budgets.
PHOTO COURTESY OF DAQRI